There may be lots at stake within the Q Tour of the ProVelo Tremendous League, the brand new Australian home racing collection, with excess of the pleasure of victories and winners’ cheques at stake as the ultimate battle among the many under-23 riders unfolds – the highest spots may also earn them contracts to race internationally.
The lads in with a shot on the stagiaire position with WorldTour group Jayco-AlUla are Jack Ward (Workforce Brennan p/b TP32) and Zachary Marriage (Butterfields Ziptrak). The U23 duo are main the general standings, and are far sufficient forward of their rivals that it’s right down to a two-way battle. Ward is on prime with 381 factors whereas Marriage is sitting on 338 factors.
The ladies, technically, have three U23 riders who’re inside attain of the win and year-long 2026 contract with Liv-AlUla-Jayco’s Continental improvement focussed group. Praties teammates Sophie Marr and Talia Appleton within the prime two spots of the U23 and general rankings whereas Alli Anderson (Butterfields Ziptrak) is third however with a factors deficit that will likely be close to inconceivable to beat within the remaining spherical. Marr is on 496 factors and Appleton on 423, whereas Anderson sits at 342, which is a 154-deficit to the highest.
A clear sweep of the general win, 4 levels and Mountains and Factors classifications would ship near 250 factors throughout Queensland’s Q Tour, which can play out from Friday March 21 to Sunday March 23 with a criterium, street race, time trial and circuit street race with a hilltop end. Nonetheless quite a bit must go proper for third-placed Anderson and quite a bit flawed for each her rivals for the Butterfields Ziptrak rider to get even near bridging the hole. It’s, nonetheless a extra possible activity between the highest two locations of each the lads’s and ladies’s U23 leaderboard.
The complete particulars of the factors on provide are under, however first Cyclingnews supplies a better take a look at every of the riders in rivalry for the ProVelo Tremendous League U23 win and the chance to race in Europe as an expert that comes together with that victory.
Ladies’s U23
Sophie Marr (Praties) wins stage 2 on the Tour of Tasmania, the third spherical of the 2025 ProVelo Tremendous League (Picture credit score: Con Chronis/ProVelo Tremendous League)
Sophie Marr (Praties)
Factors whole at finish of spherical 5 – 496Age – 20Top collection outcomes – SA Kick It stage 2 win, Tour of Tasmania stage 2 win and general victory, Harbour Metropolis GP stage 1 and stage 2 wins, second on stage 3 of SA Kick It in addition to on stage 1 and 4 of the Tour of Tasmania
Sophie Marr got here into 2025 after a powerful end to final season, claiming the ultimate stage of the Tour of Gippsland which was additionally the top of the long-running Nationwide Street Sequence that the ProVelo Tremendous League changed. Then she went on to return a formidable eighth within the Ladies’s WorldTour ranked Tour of Guangxi in Nanning as she farewelled ARA-Skip Capital, the group she had raced with via 2023 and 2024.
Beginning 2025 with the robust Praties squad, Marr was fast to make her mark on the brand new collection. She gained the SA Kick It stage 2 criterium in entrance of the packed crowd on the occasion, which ran alongside the Tour Down Beneath, and second place in stage 3 at The Bend Motorsport Park. Tour of Tasmania delivered extra success, with Marr not as soon as deviating from the rostrum and taking the highest spot on stage 2 and general. On prime of that the rider who is decided to make it to the skilled ranks in 2026 clinched the opening two levels of the Harbour Metropolis GP and delivered a strong eighth on the Mt Mitchell to Inverell, which was gained by the break. That has left Marr because the main general contender in a powerhouse group because the collection heads towards the ultimate stage.
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Talia Appleton (Praties)
Factors whole at finish of spherical 5 – 423Age – 19Top collection outcomes – SA Kick It stage 1 time trial win and general victory, second on stage 3 of Harbour Metropolis GP
On the finish of 2024, Talia Appleton made sure that there was little doubt about her climbing prowess with a win on the prime of Tawonga Hole on stage 1 of the Tour of Vivid, after which a runner-up spot on the Mount Buffalo finale which additionally delivered second within the tour general.
The profitable type carried into the opening spherical of the ProVelo Tremendous League, with victory within the stage 1 time trial up Willunga Hill and likewise general. It was a really perfect begin, although one which had come at a value with Appleton sacrificing her place within the Australian group for the ladies’s Santos Tour Down Beneath, which clashed with the opening spherical, so she might chase these league factors in South Australia. By way of the remainder of the rounds, Appleton hasn’t as soon as fallen out of the highest 10, constantly up there gathering factors. That places Praties in a robust place on the prime of the general with two riders, although it might after all be a state of affairs with some issues as whereas biking is a group sport, each cannot stroll away with the possibly life-changing prize.
Alli Anderson (Butterfields Ziptrak)
Factors whole at finish of spherical 5 – 342Age – 21Top collection outcomes – Tour of Tasmania stage 2 win, Harbour Metropolis GP stage 3 win and general victory plus second general on the Tour of Tasmania
It was on the Tour of Vivid in December that Alli Anderson made it clear that she was again from the well being issues that had stymied her run, coming second on stage 1 behind Appleton, profitable the stage 2 time trial after which taking third on Mount Buffalo to safe the general tour.
When it got here to the brand new season, Anderson could not have made a greater begin, profitable the U23 time trial on the AusCycling Street Nationwide Championships in Perth. She then made the choice to forgo the primary spherical of the ProVelo Sequence, as not like Appleton, she took up her spot on the Australian nationwide group for the Santos Tour Down Beneath. That left her on the again foot points-wise, however she was on the assault within the second spherical on the Melbourne to Warrnambool. She ended up in sixth however it was her race savvy that helped clinch her group the win as she prompted teammate Katelyn Nicholson to leap on the proper second and ship the profitable transfer. Stage wins at each the Tour of Tasmania and Harbour Metropolis Grand Prix in addition to the general victory on the Sydney race helped the South Australian accumulate factors. Nonetheless, with a break taking the win on the Grafton to Inverell, the alternatives to shut the hole narrowed, making it seemingly a bridge too far within the remaining spherical.
Males’s U23
Jack Ward (Workforce Brennan p/b TP32)
Jack Ward (Workforce Brennan p/b/ TP 32) on the Tour of Tasmania, the third spherical of the 2025 ProVelo Tremendous League (Picture credit score: Con Chronis/ProVelo Tremendous League)
Factors whole at finish of spherical 5 – 381Age – 19Top collection outcomes – Tour of Tasmania stage 4 win and general victory, second on stage 2 of SA Kick It stage 1 Willunga time trial in addition to second on stage 2 of each the Tour of Tasmania and Harbour Metropolis GP
It was crystal clear that Jack Ward’s abilities went past mountain biking when the 19-year-old was the one rider who might persist with WorldTour skilled Luke Plapp’s wheel on the summit end on stage 1 of the Tour of Vivid after which even went round to clinch the win. And what’s extra, he backed it up with one other prime spot on Mount Buffalo the following day. His potential was clear and the newly fashioned Workforce Brennan p/b TP32 had been fast so as to add him to their roster to tackle this 12 months’s ProVelo Tremendous League.
It was a call that instantly paid dividends, with Ward coming third general at SA Kick It however topping the U23 standings after which when he moved on via to the Tour of Tasmania and the uphill terrain that fits him so nicely he claimed the hilltop victory and general. A strong exhibiting on the Harbour Metropolis GP then left him in a powerful sufficient place to skip the fifth spherical Grafton to Inverell so he might participate within the Australian Mountain Bike Championships – the place he took the elite brief monitor title and got here second within the cross nation. Lacking the penultimate occasion, did not cease him retaining the collection lead into the ultimate spherical.
Zachary Marriage (Butterfields Ziptrak)
Factors whole at finish of spherical 5 – 338Age – 21Top collection outcomes – Runner up spots on stage 3 and stage 4 of Tour of Tasmania in addition to second general, second on the Grafton to Inverell
Zac Marriage went straight to the highest step as he began the 2025 season, profitable the Australian males’s U23 time trial title in emphatic fashion. After Perth, he was set to line up for the lads’s Australian nationwide squad on the Santos Tour Down Beneath however that did not hold him utterly away from the opening SA Kick It spherical of the ProVelo collection as nicely.
Decided to benefit from each likelihood he raced the opening Willunga HIll time trial on the morning of Saturday, January 18 with Butterfields Ziptrak, coming fourth, then the Villawood Males’s Traditional pre-Tour Down Beneath criterium with the nationwide group. Sunday night it was a fifth at ProVelo Tremendous League’s Victoria Park criterium after which Monday he skipped the street race finale of SA Kick It to prepare to start out racing the six stage WorldTour race on Tuesday. Even then when he began on the market was no sitting again, he took half in a gutsy 126km break on the primary stage with teammate Fergus Browning after which finally ended the WorldTour race within the prime 20 general and second within the youth classification.
That efficiency in South Australia was a reminder to rivals that Marriage was a transparent risk within the new league, regardless of lacking out on some factors when he skipped a race within the opening spherical. A particularly constant efficiency all through, a Tour of Tasmania the place he was on the rostrum in each stage in addition to coming second general then a hard-earned Grafton to Inverell runner-up place has helped put him inside attain of the highest spot. Nonetheless, it is not going to be straightforward to trump Ward within the four-stage Q Tour and pull again 43 factors however his Butterfield Ziptrak group backing him all the way in which.
“Our males’s group stays firmly dedicated to our objective for the season, the collection victory for Zac Marriage.” stated Butterfield Ziptrak in an Instagram submit. “A giant trip by the entire group at Grafton sees us with greater than a sniff and we will likely be laying all of it on the market to get the job carried out.”
Factors on provide
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Total basic classification in excursions and one-day racesPositionPoints110028036845854964273683192610221119121613141412151016-25526-50351+1
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Total mountain and factors classification in toursPositionPoints124220317
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Stage classification in toursPositionPoints120216314412510
